Trump $175m bond lifeline branded a 'travesty' as Truth Social hits Wall Street: Live – The Independent

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Donald Trump forbidden from talking about those involved in hush-money case concerning Stormy Daniels as trial looms
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Donald Trump has been hit with another gag order ahead of his hush-money criminal trial. Justice Juan Merchan granted the request from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg which prohibits the former president from talking about anyone involved in the case or their families.
Mr Trump experienced a day of mixed fortunes in the courtroom on Monday when Judge Merchan ruled the trial could go ahead as planned with jury selection on 15 April while a New York appeals court granted him a major win on the day his $464m fraud bond had been due.
Mr Trump attended the pretrial hearing on the hush-money case and said he expects to become “more popular” if he is ultimately convicted because his supporters know the case against him is a “scam.”
In the fraud case, he was unexpectedly handed a 10-day extension to pay $175m of the total fraud judgment against him as the deadline for that payment dawned.
Mr Trump has repeatedly claimed that he is worth billions of dollars but much of that is tied up in the Trump Organization and real estate.
New York Attorney General Letitia James responded that the defendant “is still facing accountability for his staggering fraud”.
Alex Woodward reports:
Last week, Donald Trump claimed he had “almost” $500m “in cash” that he obtained “through hard work, talent and luck.”
He said that “substantial amount” was intended to fund his presidential campaign.
Days later, facing an imminent deadline to post an appeals bond of nearly half a billion dollars to block enforcement of civil fraud judgment against him, the former president suggested he had “a similar amount in my bank account” and he “intended to use much of that hard earned money on running for President.”
But after a New York appeals court allowed Mr Trump to post a $175m bond up to 10 days after Monday’s deadline to come up with the cash, the Republican Party’s likely nominee for president said it’s “none of your business” if he actually puts up any of his own money for his campaign.
Read more…
His fraud appeal bond was slashed, but the GOP frontrunner won’t say if he’ll use his own money to campaign
In the hush-money case gag order, Donald Trump is prohibited from:
“Making or directing others to make public statements about known or reasonably foreseeable witnesses concerning their potential participation in the investigation or in this criminal proceeding;
“Making or directing others to make public statements about (1) counsel in the case other than the District Attorney, (2) Members of the court’s staff and the District Attorney’s staff, or (3) the family members of any counsel or staff members, if those statements are made with the intent to materially interfere with, or to cause others to materially interfere with, counsel’s or staff’s work in this criminal case, or with the knowledge that such interference is likely to result and;
“Making or directing others to make public statements about any perspective juror or any juror in this criminal proceeding.”
It is worth noting that it was only on Tuesday morning that the former president attacked Judge Juan Merchan, and his daughter, in a Truth Social post:
Republican presidential candidate attempts to smear judge presiding over upcoming trial with baseless accusations of political bias
Alex Woodward reports:
Donald Trump will be restricted from making any public statements about witnesses, jurors, lawyers, court staff and their families, according to a partial gag order from New York Justice Juan Merchan, who is overseeing the so-called hush money case against the former president.
The judge’s order, issued hours after Mr Trump lashed out at his daughter on his Truth Social, blocks the former president from making any such statements “made with the intent to materially interfere” with any work in the case, which is scheduled to go to trial on 15 April.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg requested a limited gag order last month, citing Mr Trump’s “long history” of “inflammatory” remarks aimed at the prosecutors, judges, court staff and others wrapped up in his mountain of criminal and civil litigation.
Continue reading…
Manhattan prosecutors requested the order, citing the ex-president’s ‘inflammatory’ remarks that fuelled threats
Mike Roman, once a 2020 Trump campaign official and now a co-defendant alongside the former president in the Fulton County Georgia election interference case, has been subpoenaed by officials in Arizona as part of that state’s criminal investigation into efforts to overturn Joe Biden’s victory.
ABC News and CNN have both reported the news citing unnamed sources.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis disputed that her office’s prosecution of Donald Trump for his efforts to pressure state officials in Georgia to change the 2020 election results was in any way hindered or slowed down by the dispute over her relationship with a prosecutor on the case.
Ms Willis spoke to a CNN reporter on Saturday and said that while outside forces were working to slow the case down, her office had continued working on the case throughout the recent proceedings determining whether there was a conflict of interest on Ms Willis’s part given a romantic relationship she engaged in with a prosecutor on her team.
Continue reading John Bowden’s report:
Ex-president faces racketeering charge in Georgia after conflict of interest dispute ends
Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo has been slammed after she attempted to link the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore to Joe Biden’s immigration policy.
In an early morning broadcast on the right-wing channel, Bartiromo asked US Senator Rick Scott for his take on the bridge collapse, linking it to the “wide-open border.”
Martha McHardy reports on what Bartiromo said:
Six people remain unaccounted for after the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Batimore collapsed
Independent presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr has announced that Silicon Valley investor and attorney Nicole Shanahan will be his running mate.
Mr Kennedy, an environmental lawyer and anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist, made the announcement at an event in Oakland, California on Tuesday. In the last few weeks, the Kennedy campaign has spoken to more than half a dozen possible candidates, with the early favourites including New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers and former wrestler and Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura.
Ms Shanahan, 38, became the favourite late in the process even as she was connected to his campaign and helped pay for a Super Bowl ad backing Mr Kennedy, The New York Times noted.
Gustaf Kilander watched the announcement:
Kennedy’s ‘vice presidential pick essentially just doubles down on these anti-vaccine conspiracies … that is quite frankly, dangerous,’ House Democrat says
Donald Trump said he would “put up the cash” as he was granted more time to pay part of the $464m bond in his New York civil fraud case on Monday, 25 March. An appeals court granted the former president a 10-day extension to pay $175m in a reprieve on the day the full amount against him had been due. In rambling remarks at 40 Wall Street after appearing in Manhattan criminal court, Mr Trump said: “This is all about election interference. This is all Biden-run things. “We’ll put up securities, cash, or bond, whatever it is, very quickly.”
Independent presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr has announced that Silicon Valley investor and attorney Nicole Shanahan will be his running mate.
Mr Kennedy made the announcement at an event in Oakland, California on Tuesday. In the last few weeks, the Kennedy campaign has spoken to more than half a dozen possible candidates, with the early favourites including New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers and former wrestler and Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura.
Ms Shanahan, 38, became the favourite late in the process even as she was connected to his campaign and helped pay for a Super Bowl ad backing Mr Kennedy, The New York Times noted.
Gustaf Kilander reports:
Independent presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr has announced that Silicon Valley investor and attorney Nicole Shanahan will be his running mate.
Graig Graziosi reports:
Donald Trump, fresh off a near-miraculous court ruling slashing a nearly half-billion bond he owed down to $175m, is now slinging Bibles on Truth Social.
The former president — who has previously compared himself to Jesus Christ — has lent his image to the “God Bless the USA” Bible, a special version of the Good Book inspired by Lee Greenwood‘s saccharine patriotic tune of the same name.
Mr Trump held up the brown leather tome — this time right-side up — in an ad he shared on his Truth Social account on Tuesday.
Read on…
‘All Americans need a Bible in their home and I have many, it’s my favorite book’
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